Ringside Seat: Lucky Mitt

Will the operatic sturm und drang of the Republican presidential race end with a whimper of anti-climatic predictability? With one week to go before the Iowa caucuses, Newt Gingrich is flailing (see below) and Ron Paul is mishandling the controversy over his racist newsletters (ditto), while Rick Santorum and Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are still squabbling over the same Christian Right turf—leading folks like Nate Silver to ask: "How Can Romney Lose?" Even Mike Huckabee, who famously said in 2008 that Romney looks like "the guy who laid you off," is predicting he'll be the nominee. Meanwhile, a Boston Globe poll shows Romney winning 44 percent of Tea Partiers' support in New Hampshire.

If the former Massachusetts governor can overcome Ron Paul's fragile edge in the Iowa polls, he could be looking like a shoo-in for the nomination next Wednesday morning. As John Heilman writes, chronicling Romney's December comeback, maybe it really is "better to be lucky than loved."

So they Say

The most exciting development of the past few weeks is what has been happening up in Massachusetts. The health bill that Governor Romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system."